Eric Cantor Promises Oil Speculators That Republicans Will Block Financial Regulations

[DearAbby]

Yesterday morning, House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) visited the Chicago headquarters of the CME Group, “the world’s largest owner and operator” of private exchanges for derivatives products. CME Group specializes in a number of markets, including trading futures contracts for various blends of crude oil and food commodities. Cantor met with executives, and at one point, gave brief remarks before CME Group employees and various commodity speculators.

Cantor told the audience of speculators that his Republican caucus would “do our part” to block the implementation of financial reforms passed last year as part of the sweeping Dodd-Frank law. He even called out the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the regulators in charge of overseeing derivatives and energy speculation, and promised to stop regulations from going online:

CANTOR: And you’ve managed to be able to serve that function in the CME Group for so much of this country and the world, and you’ve also managed to position as a true world leader. We want that in every arena. We want to help you continue to lead for America, that means we gotta do our part when you see the implementation of Dodd-Frank coming at you like a barreling train. We want to help control that so that we can get some sensible, sensible follow up to that legislation. <...> Whether it’s the EPA, the FDA, the FCC, the SEC, the CFTC, you name it, there is an acronym for a federal agency causing harm right now. We’re trying to pull that in.

More with Video: http://thinkprogress.org/?p=167102

[Parker CA]

1. And just the next day says congress can't pay for the Joplin disaster without cutting elsewhere. nt

[DearAbby]

2. Yeep...Slime bottom feeding bloodsuckers

[Parker CA]

3. That's a very kind way of phrasing it. ;-)

[Monique1]

4. May Cantor rot in hell!~

[abelenkpe]

5. I hope someone is compliling all these Cantor statements to use in

campaign ads. I mean really, most people understand that oil speculation drives up the cost of gas at the pump for all motorists, increases our food and energy costs and burdens workers already struggling with rising costs in other areas. Yet here he is openly saying he will side with speculators? I can't see that going over well with voters. What more do we need to illustrate that republicans protect the super wealthy and corporations with no compassion or consideration for the average man or woman?

[Angry Dragon]

7. It almost sounds like he is a traitor to this country

Perhaps borderline treason??

[bluethruandthru]

8. I think you're giving people a lot more credit than they deserve.

I think most people think "high gas prices - it's the President's fault". I really think people are pretty clueless about this (and many other issues). They prefer to believe the Limbaughs and Hannitys of the right wing media and blame everything on the president.

[KansDem]

6. How does one become an "oil speculator?"

I suppose you need access to some oil, but then what do you do? Work out deals to sell it at a fixed price at some later date?

Aren't these speculators, in reality, cartels?

[MemeSmith]

9. Anyone can do it

You open a brokerage account with an online futures broker, like TradeStation, Trade Portal, Interactive Brokers, Think or Swim, or the like, and away you go.

Look any of them up on the net, to see about fees and account margins, etc. You can get started with as little as $500, but if you try to trade oil futures with no education, you'd be better off just giving the money to charity.

A safer route into speculation would be foreign exchange, where you can open an account with as little as $200 and trade with as little exposure as 10c per pip.

There are lots of education resources on the net, too, many of them free. Just search for 'trading education.'

There are some professional education providers, too, and a lot of shysters in the trading education field.

Anyone is allowed to try it and it's a level playing field, for the most part, but the average human being is emotionally pre programmed to sabotage themselves, which is why so many untrained retail traders blow up their trading accounts and give up.

Cheers,

[MemeSmith]

10. By the way, oil speculators didn't do this...

Ben Bernanke did it.

Oil rising to $100 per barrel is an illusion. It is the dollar that has fallen to a value of only 1/100 barrel of oil.

Consider the dollar as a voucher for stuff. If you print trillions of new vouchers but don't make trillions more stuff, the vouchers are worth much less. That's what happened with the oil market. A barrel is a barrel, but a dollar is bullshit.

It's a back door pay cut for the American worker.

Slick, huh?